Now, the company says it has broken the three million unit mark for the rollout of its Simpass technology.

The majority of Watchdata’s devices are being distributed via China Telecom which officially launched an NFC version of the Yang Cheng Tong Card, for public transport and other local payments, in Guangzhou and Foshan provinces in February.

China Telecom has issued almost two million Simpass devices to date in more than 20 provinces in China, says Watchdata, and a recent survey conducted by China Telecom has found that:

Simpass works with 80% of handsets on the market and can be used to make payments at more than 20,000 points of sale across China, including farmers’ markets where consumers can pay for fresh vegetables and seafood with their mobile phones.

Speaking at the Cartes Asia conference, Dr Sean Gao, Watchdata’s vice president of product and marketing, said the firm was looking for global expansion.

“We are looking to replicate the success of Simpass in China around the world,” he said, “making it the unifying solution for different stakeholders that would hopefully become a mobile payment standard in the industry.”